One of the most fulfilling thing we do as local guides is keeping our area up-to-date; it helps people find the place of their choice, helps local businesses get some exposure, and also gives all of you guys and girls the chance to review and comment, and upload amazing photos.
Part of our duty in updating the local landscape is to mark places that are permanently closed, and it can sometimes be heartbreaking.
There is this boutique coffee shop walking distance from my place. The owner roasts his own coffee and is running the place on his own. It’s tastefully decorated with lots of wood used in the interior design, and there is a very small gar
den if you don’t feel like sitting in the air conditioned room. You can tell the owner loves what he does, and he puts a lot of passion in making his coffee. You can choose form different roasts. The last one i tried had a banana taste and was surprisingly good. With free high speed WiFi, that’s the perfect spot to hot-desk. Last week, I was craving for one of those delicious roasts, and had a bit of work to do as well, so I joyfully headed to the coffee shop, thinking of that nice coffee taste on my palate, and how good it would be to work on that big wooden table there. But to my surprise, when i reached there, nothing! No more garden, no more signage, no more furniture in the shop. No more shop. The place unfortunately closed down. The economic downturn has had its toll of small businesses like those and I was saddened to see it closed. The place has 4.6 star rating with 96 reviews. You can check it here: Local Hand Coffee. So I picked up my phone and marked the place as permanently closed. Not something we, as local guides, really like to do. And then it made me wonder: where do all those reviews these places had, and all the photos, go? All those memories just vanish from the public Google landscape. So I was thinking, may be we should have another google maps, like a parallel universe, that would show only the closed places. Or even better, a timeline in Google Maps that would show the evolution over the years.
But as a local guide, I also find that it pushes me out of my comfort zone by making me more likely to experience new places.
I am naturally curious. But sometimes, you kind of find yourself caught in a routine, without even noticing it. One of the perks of being a local guide is that it keeps that curiosity alive. You see something new and it kind of makes you want to check it out and see what it’s like. A bit as if we were reporting some local news. It also makes us feel good to help out some local businesses. For instance there is that small local restaurant where I really enjoy going, because the food is totally delicious, they are very friendly, and the prices are very fair. I am going there quite often, as a regular. After joining the Local Guides program, I naturally wanted to leave them a review given they never failed to deliver. I struggled a little bit to find them on Google maps because a lot of outlet here have only Thai names. One day, when it was a bit quiet and had the change to chat with one of the waitresses there, I asked her to help me locate their restaurant on Google Map. But they just weren’t there! So she sat down with me, and I asked her to help me with the listing, such as typing the name of the restaurant in Thai, the phone number, etc. You can’t imagine their joy when they finally saw their restaurant listed on Google Maps! You can check them out here: ครัวน้องแนน
In any case, helping maintain our neighborhood on Google Maps is really helpful for the tremendous amount of users logging in every single day. And even though it is on a fully volunteer basis, it brings a lot of non-financial rewards, like pride and satisfaction.
So what about you? What are your most heartbreaking and your most enjoyable experience a Local Guides? Please drop your comments below!